1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image transmitting apparatus capable of dividing an image into a region of interest and a region of non-interest, applying different types of processing to images in the respective regions, and transmitting the processed images; an image receiving apparatus capable of receiving and combining together the images in the region of interest and region of non-interest transmitted from the image transmitting apparatus; an image transmitting and receiving system including the image transmitting apparatus and the image receiving apparatus; an image transmitting program; and an image receiving program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Instead of an analog camera system that has been used, an Internet protocol (IP) camera system based on network transmission is beginning to be used as a monitoring camera system. The IP camera system allows monitoring from remote locations and construction of a large-scale system. However, as the system size increases, an increase in necessary transmission capacity (bandwidth) and recording (storage) capacity becomes a greater problem (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publications Nos. 2006-145944, 2007-108447, and 11-252428).
FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a monitoring camera (IP output type) of the related art. A video image picked up through a lens L by a charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor or a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor passes through a signal processing unit 51 and becomes image data. The image data is transmitted to a compressing device (codec) 53 and the compressed image data is distributed to a network. In the example of FIG. 10, a region of importance is extracted by intelligence 52. For example, detection of a moving object can be made by the intelligence 52. Typically, an image is compressed by the compressing device 53 and, at the same time, subjected to “intelligence” processing, such as moving object detection. Then, if an intruder or the like is detected, the intelligence 52 generates an alarm or outputs the detected region as metadata.
Particularly in recent years, by using a high-pixel CCD or CMOS image sensor, it has been possible to capture images at high resolution without depending on a television format used in an analog monitoring camera of the related art. When a target image is captured at high resolution, it is possible to define a wider area as a monitoring area and check an object in more detail. However, as the image resolution increases, the amount of information increases proportionately. This causes an increase in necessary transmission and storage capacities, and thus burdens the system construction.
For capturing images at high resolution, it is necessary to reduce the amount of data to minimize the burden caused by an increase in the amount of information. For example, the amount of image data can be reduced by increasing the compression ratio in image compression (codec) or by reducing the image.